Are you sitting comfortably?

With nothing better to do this Valentine's evening (sniff), I found myself curled up on the sofa catching up with some work (one of the consequences of my visit last week was that I found out exactly how much work had been accumulated for me). Fortunately I found a distraction tucked away in the dark recesses of BBC4, host of a Jackanory celebration. Yay! As well a painting a detailed history of the programme over it's thirty year history (so many familiar faces!) it also featured repeats of some of the series classic moments. Those chosen were Judi Dench's rendition of "A Dog So Small", Alan Bennet's fondly remembered reading of "A House On Pooh Corner", the marvellous Kenneth Williams (with a book unfamiliar to me), and bestest of all, Rik Mayall's anarchic performance of Roalh Dahl's "George's Marvellous Medicine" (which unsurprisingly was revealed to have resulted in a flood of complaints to the BBC). The latter is generally remembered as one of the highlights of the series over it's long history, and I can't disagree - it was great to watch Rik Mayall tearing through the flimsy sets, upending everything he could get his hands on into his enormous cauldron of a saucepan and generally creating an almighty mess. Apparently one grandmother discovered her children repeating this experiment after they'd watched the programme. The scamps had filled the bath with everything the could find, including a bottle of paint stripper which utterly ruined the bath. Quite frankly, having watched the programme again, I'm surprised there weren't more reports of such incidents. Rik Mayall made it look like terribly good fun that quite frankly it's just as well I don't have a bath else I'd probably be emptying noxious things into it right now. Yes, I really am that impressionable.

At the end we were reminded again that Jackanory will be making a return this Autumn after a near decade long absence from our screens. I've mused before as to whether I'd really care if it returned or not, but having seen what I've just seen, I do believe I'll make an effort to catch it when it's back. It was a great pleasure to watch again, hearkening back to such a different age of television.

Perhaps nostalgia is what it used to be after all